GAINESVILLE, Fla. (March 16, 2013) - Ron Capps knows he has a tough foe in Sunday's opening round of championship eliminations in the NHRA Gatornationals at Gainesville, Fla.
Capps not only faces a teammate and friend, but he will meet the team that edged him out by two points for last year's Funny Car world championship in the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series.
Capps qualified sixth in Don Schumacher Racing's NAPA Filters Dodge Charger R/T and that pairs him with Jack Beckman, who qualified 11th.
It also will be against the crew that was with Capps for several years until early last season when he and Beckman switched teams.
"It's always fun when I get to race my old crew and Beckman," Capps said.
The drivers and their teams have been heading in opposite directions early this season.
While Capps and crew chief Rahn Tobler have been the dominant Funny Car team by finishing runner-up in the first event and winning the title at the last one to take the series points lead, Beckman's team lost in the first rounds of those events and struggled in qualifying at Gainesville.
"You never want to race your teammate, especially in the first round," Capps said. "It's been a rough start to the season for them, but I know what that team is capable of."
Capps acknowledges his Dodge has struggled the past two days, but it hasn't been for a lack of power. Only one of the team's four runs ended under full power. The NAPA Filters Dodge's best run was 4.115 seconds at 304.94 mph on Friday afternoon.
The other three, including both on Saturday, resulted in tire smoke after losing traction.
"The track is very tricky, but it's that way every year. When it gets hot like it was today and will be on Sunday it is very demanding on crew chiefs. It was demanding at Phoenix (three weeks ago) and hard to negotiate, but Tobler figured it out.
"I'm glad we ran the 4.11. Our NAPA Filters Dodge is like a thoroughbred: It just wants to run wild in an open field. It just wants to run and Rahn has to keeping pulling it back.
"We'll be fine on Sunday even though it smoked the tires today on both runs it was pretty far down there and Rahn knows why. He'll just pull it back a little more."
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Capps not only faces a teammate and friend, but he will meet the team that edged him out by two points for last year's Funny Car world championship in the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series.
Capps qualified sixth in Don Schumacher Racing's NAPA Filters Dodge Charger R/T and that pairs him with Jack Beckman, who qualified 11th.
It also will be against the crew that was with Capps for several years until early last season when he and Beckman switched teams.
"It's always fun when I get to race my old crew and Beckman," Capps said.
The drivers and their teams have been heading in opposite directions early this season.
While Capps and crew chief Rahn Tobler have been the dominant Funny Car team by finishing runner-up in the first event and winning the title at the last one to take the series points lead, Beckman's team lost in the first rounds of those events and struggled in qualifying at Gainesville.
"You never want to race your teammate, especially in the first round," Capps said. "It's been a rough start to the season for them, but I know what that team is capable of."
Capps acknowledges his Dodge has struggled the past two days, but it hasn't been for a lack of power. Only one of the team's four runs ended under full power. The NAPA Filters Dodge's best run was 4.115 seconds at 304.94 mph on Friday afternoon.
The other three, including both on Saturday, resulted in tire smoke after losing traction.
"The track is very tricky, but it's that way every year. When it gets hot like it was today and will be on Sunday it is very demanding on crew chiefs. It was demanding at Phoenix (three weeks ago) and hard to negotiate, but Tobler figured it out.
"I'm glad we ran the 4.11. Our NAPA Filters Dodge is like a thoroughbred: It just wants to run wild in an open field. It just wants to run and Rahn has to keeping pulling it back.
"We'll be fine on Sunday even though it smoked the tires today on both runs it was pretty far down there and Rahn knows why. He'll just pull it back a little more."
More...
